His eyes flew across the landscape below. Everything was gray.
He remembered that the world wasn't like this before. Back before man had scrubbed the color from his world, one could still remember the gentle beauty of the sky as it woke from its slumber into a beautiful blue that graced you with its presence... one could still remember the fragile splendor of the rose in bloom.
He sighed and kept scanning the world. The sky and the rose were no longer as beautiful as before. They were just... He tried to determine the word and came up short. It was a long time since anyone remembered the way the world was, a delicate masterpiece.
Silent. That was a passable word.
It wasn't as if man had wanted to scrub his land, but these things happen. Science may be nice, but the problem with science is that science is an egoist. It is only concerned with its own greatness. Science will win the Nobel Prize at the cost of a million worlds without a passing thought. Thus is its nature. This is why the Trees had worked so hard to draw attention to the dangers of Science. In the end, they had died for nothing.
They tried to fight it with peaceful protest in the beginning. The old idea of ringing people around trees, putting people in trees... these are things the Trees tried to do to protect the Forest. But Science fought back. Science has weapons that even the Forest cannot repel. Science brought guns and soldiers clad in black with guns clad in black that fired bullets clad in black, and the Forest was soon clad in red as the Trees died, and the Forest died with them.
So they turned to violence, but again, eschewing Science works only until Science fights you with itself. He sighed at the bitter realization. In the end, Science defeats the Forest. There's nothing the Trees could do about it.
And as Science tightened its hold upon the world and the last of the Trees disappeared into hiding, the world's color began to change. Where it once was red and blue and green and bright, now it is white and gray and black and dead. Science scrubbed the world of its color in its pursuit of Science, and while Science won, the world lost.
The Trees tried to spread the word, of course. They stood on streetcorners, trying to spread pamphlets and avoid the attention of the Safety Groups at the same time, who were more than willing to eliminate political enemies to "protect the lives of the people". Trees, and suspected Trees, would be taken from their beds in the night, taken away to places lost to all but Satan himself, who laughed as he gazed down into the darkness of this personal hell that man and Science had wrought together.
And he was all that was left. They had taken everyone; all the real Trees and all the fake Trees alike were dead or turned. There was nothing left here.
And as he stared out into the grayscale abyss of the world, he thought he noticed a single rose, with a drop of morning dew on its leaves. Where before this might have given him joy, now he only had sadness. He realized that his world was no longer beautiful, and this filled him, the last Tree, with sadness. He realized that the Forest was dead.
And he realized that his color was gone too. Before he could stand in the Forest and witness its beauty, as a Tree among the Forest. But now he realized that he was without a Forest. And as he locked eyes with the colorless rose, with its morning dew on it, he knew in his cold, gray heart that it was over. And as he watched the helicopters move in toward him, and watched the soldiers in gray with their guns in gray and their bullets in gray move in, he sighed one last time, put the gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.
When the soldiers arrived, they discovered the body of a gray man with a gun in his hand. But as they turned, their eyes too locked on that rose, the same which had engaged the man. His blood had launched across the ground, striking the rose. And as the men saw the unnaturally gray rose turn a brilliant, bloody shade of red, they truly realized in their hearts what Science had wrought upon the world.
They watched this for a moment, then one at a time, they turned and walked away.
I liked this story. At first, I thought your metaphor was a bit lopsided. It was easy to figure out what "Science" represented, but it was a bit harder to figure out what "Trees" meant. I saw three possible conflicts presented here:
Science vs. Nature
Science vs. Art
and even Science vs. Religion
At first, I wanted the metaphor to be more clear, but in time, I realized that your main point is probably a statement against the black-and-white nature of Science, and it ultimately doesn't really matter who the Trees represent.
Having said that, the story wasn't perfect and it needs some cleaning up with regards to grammar and such. Also, the guns and bullets change from black to gray, which is a detail I didn't like. Finally, I really, really disliked the suicide at the end. I felt a stronger ending would have been the last Tree standing up and being shot down in a hail of gunfire, though he makes no effort to defend himself or fight back.
Like I said, I did enjoy the story, and I read it twice just to be sure. I would be interested in reading it again if you decide to revisit it and polish it up a bit.
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He remembered that the world wasn't like this before. Back before man had scrubbed the color from his world, one could still remember the gentle beauty of the sky as it woke from its slumber into a beautiful blue that graced you with its presence... one could still remember the fragile splendor of the rose in bloom.
He sighed and kept scanning the world. The sky and the rose were no longer as beautiful as before. They were just... He tried to determine the word and came up short. It was a long time since anyone remembered the way the world was, a delicate masterpiece.
Silent. That was a passable word.
It wasn't as if man had wanted to scrub his land, but these things happen. Science may be nice, but the problem with science is that science is an egoist. It is only concerned with its own greatness. Science will win the Nobel Prize at the cost of a million worlds without a passing thought. Thus is its nature. This is why the Trees had worked so hard to draw attention to the dangers of Science. In the end, they had died for nothing.
They tried to fight it with peaceful protest in the beginning. The old idea of ringing people around trees, putting people in trees... these are things the Trees tried to do to protect the Forest. But Science fought back. Science has weapons that even the Forest cannot repel. Science brought guns and soldiers clad in black with guns clad in black that fired bullets clad in black, and the Forest was soon clad in red as the Trees died, and the Forest died with them.
So they turned to violence, but again, eschewing Science works only until Science fights you with itself. He sighed at the bitter realization. In the end, Science defeats the Forest. There's nothing the Trees could do about it.
And as Science tightened its hold upon the world and the last of the Trees disappeared into hiding, the world's color began to change. Where it once was red and blue and green and bright, now it is white and gray and black and dead. Science scrubbed the world of its color in its pursuit of Science, and while Science won, the world lost.
The Trees tried to spread the word, of course. They stood on streetcorners, trying to spread pamphlets and avoid the attention of the Safety Groups at the same time, who were more than willing to eliminate political enemies to "protect the lives of the people". Trees, and suspected Trees, would be taken from their beds in the night, taken away to places lost to all but Satan himself, who laughed as he gazed down into the darkness of this personal hell that man and Science had wrought together.
And he was all that was left. They had taken everyone; all the real Trees and all the fake Trees alike were dead or turned. There was nothing left here.
And as he stared out into the grayscale abyss of the world, he thought he noticed a single rose, with a drop of morning dew on its leaves. Where before this might have given him joy, now he only had sadness. He realized that his world was no longer beautiful, and this filled him, the last Tree, with sadness. He realized that the Forest was dead.
And he realized that his color was gone too. Before he could stand in the Forest and witness its beauty, as a Tree among the Forest. But now he realized that he was without a Forest. And as he locked eyes with the colorless rose, with its morning dew on it, he knew in his cold, gray heart that it was over. And as he watched the helicopters move in toward him, and watched the soldiers in gray with their guns in gray and their bullets in gray move in, he sighed one last time, put the gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.
When the soldiers arrived, they discovered the body of a gray man with a gun in his hand. But as they turned, their eyes too locked on that rose, the same which had engaged the man. His blood had launched across the ground, striking the rose. And as the men saw the unnaturally gray rose turn a brilliant, bloody shade of red, they truly realized in their hearts what Science had wrought upon the world.
They watched this for a moment, then one at a time, they turned and walked away.
Experiments Series: #5 (Courtly Intrigue Mafia) | #4 (Drunken Tracker) | #3 (Big Red Button) - coming soon | #2 (Pope Mafia) | #1 (Iso's Inflammable Mafia)
Mini Games: MTGS Mafia Redux II (Invitational, Evil Mirror Universe) | Unreal City
Old Games (bad): The Greenwood Affair | Blood Moon Mafia
Science vs. Nature
Science vs. Art
and even Science vs. Religion
At first, I wanted the metaphor to be more clear, but in time, I realized that your main point is probably a statement against the black-and-white nature of Science, and it ultimately doesn't really matter who the Trees represent.
Having said that, the story wasn't perfect and it needs some cleaning up with regards to grammar and such. Also, the guns and bullets change from black to gray, which is a detail I didn't like. Finally, I really, really disliked the suicide at the end. I felt a stronger ending would have been the last Tree standing up and being shot down in a hail of gunfire, though he makes no effort to defend himself or fight back.
Like I said, I did enjoy the story, and I read it twice just to be sure. I would be interested in reading it again if you decide to revisit it and polish it up a bit.